An elderly woman, once an intrepid journalist, is paralysed with apprehension at the thought of meeting the daughter of her dearest friend. A budding writer is taken on a amanuensis by a famous woman novelist, with disastrous results. A would-be biographer visits a home fro retired clowns. . . With her miraculously sharp eye for the telling detail, her nose for the secrets smouldering behind the most staid suburban facades, Shena Mackays's stories combine the macabre and mundane to brillant effect. show more
"[Mackay] is positively ablaze in this, her first collection of short stories for some time." - Time Out
"What a story writer--exploding moments into worlds, burnishing characters to a gleam." - Observer
"She writes like an angel wielding a scalpel, dissecting her characters with sublime, sharp-edged prose." - Guardian show more
About Shena Mackay
Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh. She is the author of two novellas, three previous collections of stories and eight novels, including The Orchard on Fire (shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize) and The Artist's Widow (1998). show more
Rating details
3.11 out of 5 stars
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37 ratings
5
8% (3)
4
19% (7)
3
54% (20)
2
14% (5)
1
5% (2)
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